# Gisela Uhlen

Gisela Uhlen (16 May 1919 – 16 January 2007) was a German film actress and occasional screen writer.

## Biography

Uhlen was born Gisela Friedlinde Schreck in Leipzig, Germany as fourth child of Luise Frieda and distillery owner and former opera singer Augustin Schreck.
At the Leipziger Konservatorium she enrolled in a modern dance class, and learnt classical ballet and acrobatics at the opera school. At 15 she decided to become a theatre actress and chose the stage-name Gisela Uhlen. After her final examination as a dancer and during her training period she married ballet teacher Herbert Freund.
At 17 she appeared for the first time at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. In 1938 Heinrich George brought her to the Berliner Schiller-Theater, where she was active until the end of the war. But even before her first stage appearance she had made film tests with Universum Film AG (Ufa), and thereby obtained the leading actress role in the 1936 film Annemarie. Die Geschichte einer Jungen Liebe. After the war performance of this film was prohibited. Uhlen played a young organist whose lover volunteered to go to the front and there died.
From 1936 through 1960, Uhlen appeared in 23 films, and in 1960 she steered her career into television. Her career was active throughout her lifetime, with her having more than 56 television appearances into 2006, entirely in the German and European realm.
She married six times, most notably to German writer, director and producer Hans Bertram, with whom she had daughter Barbara Bertram, who also became an actress, but with little success. With Wolfgang Kieling she had a daughter Susanne Uhlen, who is now a successful German actress. During the Cold War, and following her divorce from Hans Bertram, Uhlen fled into East Germany to avoid a custody battle over their daughter, an unusual move in a time when most people were attempting to escape from East Germany, but moved to West Berlin in 1960.

## Filmography

| 1936: Annemarie. Die Geschichte einer jungen Liebe - Annemarie Brinkmann 1938: Liebelei und Liebe - Elsbeth Schellenbach 1938: Dance on the Volcano - Schauspielerin Angèle Destouches 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet - Eva Burger 1939: Mann für Mann - Erika Barrels 1940: Die Rothschilds - Phyllis - Bearings Tochter 1940: Die unvollkommene Liebe - Krista 1940: Between Hamburg and Haiti - 'Bella' Anna Wittstock 1941: Ohm Krüger - Petra Krüger 1942: Destiny - Dimka 1942: Between Heaven and Earth - Christine Burger 1942: Rembrandt - Hendrickje Stoffels 1942: 5 June - Luise Reiniger 1942: Symphonie eines Lebens - Gräfin Ilka Baross 1943: Die beiden Schwestern - Gabriele Wilkens 1944: Die Zaubergeige - Agnes 1945: The Silent Guest - Lisa Radscheck 1949: Eine große Liebe - Sabine von Brackwitz 1950: The Falling Star - Lore Hollreiser 1951: Der schweigende Mund [de] - Stella Hirth 1952: Towers of Silence - Helen Morrison 1956: Das Traumschiff - Michaela Gast 1958: Emilia Galotti - Gräfin Orsina 1958: Der Prozeß wird vertagt - Marie Jäger 1959: Reifender Sommer - Sabine Gärtner 1960: Mit 17 weint man nicht [de] - Rita Wegener 1962: Der Gärtner von Toulouse (TV film) - Frau Téophot 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt - Schwester Magda 1962: The Door with Seven Locks - Emely Cody, geb. Cawler 1963: Aufstand der Gehorsamen (TV film) - Mariana Seisowa | 1963: The Indian Scarf - Mrs. Tilling 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste - Ruth Cornell - geb. Marlowe 1965: A Holiday with Piroschka - Mrs. Laurends 1965: Die eigenen vier Wände (TV film) - Georgia Witt 1966: Geschlossene Gesellschaft (TV film) - Ines 1966: The Hunchback of Soho - Mrs. Tyndal 1967: Der Panamaskandal (TV film) - Frau Girard 1967: Der Tod läuft hinterher [de] (TV miniseries) - Myrna Collins 1968: Emma Hamilton - Mrs Love 1969: Die Zimmerschlacht (TV film) - Trude Fürst 1969: Dr. Fabian: Laughing Is the Best Medicine - Henriette Gambaroff 1971: Leiche gesucht (TV film) - Faith Barraclough / Hope Barraclough 1974: Three Men in the Snow - Frau von Wolzogen 1975: Der Edelweißkönig [de] - Mother of Luitpold 1975: To the Bitter End 1975–1979: Tatort (TV series) - Frau Brenner / Vivian / Frau Stumm 1976: Lobster [de] (TV series) - Hedwig Brühl 1976: Die Hellseherin (TV film) 1977: Women in New York [de] (TV film) 1978–1990: Derrick (TV series) - Irma Labuch / Henriette Hauff / Frau Bilser 1979: Die Ehe der Maria Braun - Mother 1982: Wir haben uns doch mal geliebt - Gräfin 1982: Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl (TV series) - Gräfin 1983: Die zweite Frau [de] (TV film) - Frau Löhn 1991: Toto the Hero - Old Evelyne 1992: Zürich – Transit - Mutter 1996: Die Katze von Kensington (TV film) - Lady Smith 1997: Der Coup (TV film) - Florence de la Rochefoucauld 1998: Edgar Wallace: Das Haus der toten Augen (TV film) - Emma Miller 1989–2006: Forsthaus Falkenau (TV series) - Ingeborg 'Inge' Feininger verw. Rombach (final appearance) |

## Stage appearances

| 1953: Minna von Barnhelm von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1957: Lysistrata nach Aristophanes 1958: Die Dreigroschenoper von Bertolt Brecht 1962: Die kleinen Füchse von Lillian Hellman 1964: Der Mann von nebenan von Norman Ginsbury 1964: Ein Leben lang von William Saroyan 1966: Geschlossene Gesellschaft von Jean-Paul Sartre 1969: Die Zimmerschlacht von Martin Walser 1972: Heiraten von George Bernard Shaw 1974: Das Mißverständnis von Albert Camus | 1976: Frauen in New York von Clare Booth 1977: Marie Tudor von Victor Hugo 1977: Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? von Edward Albee 1984: Der Besuch der alten Dame von Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1986: Die Irre con Chaillot von Jean Giradoux 1990: Die Physiker von Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1992: Die Glasmenagerie von Tennessee Williams 1993: Hedda Gabler von Henrik Ibsen 1997: Mord im Pfarrhaus von Agatha Christie |

## Books

* Umarmungen und Enthüllungen. Berlin : Parthas-Verl., 2002. ISBN 3-932529-33-2
* Meine Droge ist das Leben. Weinheim : Beltz, Quadriga, 1993. ISBN 3-88679-199-8
* Mein Glashaus. Frankfurt/M : Ullstein, 1991. ISBN 3-7770-0178-3